As failed candidate and corrupt politician Josh Mandel attempts a third run for the U.S. Senate in Ohio, we’re here to take you on another trip down memory lane as we review his biggest scandals. We’ve already covered his long history of shady campaign cash schemes and pay-to-play scandals, investigated a case of a missing Mandel — and in this week’s edition of Mandel Memories, we’re taking a look at his political cronyism as Ohio Treasurer.
A Dayton Daily News investigation in 2012 found that Mandel “hired young, relatively inexperienced staffers from his 2010 campaign and gave them high-ranking jobs in the state treasurer’s office” — something he’d promised not to do during his campaign for the job. But the cronyism didn’t stop there: according to the Toledo Blade, Mandel then gave his political appointees large raises while only providing “modest” raises to the office’s career public servants. Mandel’s political appointees received raises as high as $1,153 per two-week pay period. HuffPost also revealed that Mandel had dispatched a top aide in charge of debt management (who was also his political director on multiple campaigns) to a beginner’s course in the subject he was overseeing.
“Josh Mandel’s political cronyism knows no bounds, and there’s nothing he wouldn’t do to abuse his public office at the expense of Ohio taxpayers if it benefits himself or his political allies,” said DSCC spokesperson Stewart Boss. “As Treasurer, Josh Mandel immediately hired his inexperienced political staffers to manage billions of Ohio’s tax dollars and then gifted them massive taxpayer-funded raises, breaking his own pledge and shortchanging the hardworking public servants in the office in the process. Ohioans don’t have to wonder how unethical and untrustworthy Josh Mandel would be in the Senate, they just have to look at his record.”
Dayton Daily News: Treasurer Mandel under scrutiny for hiring practices
Toledo Blade: Raises by Mandel draw criticism
HuffPost: Josh Mandel, Ohio Treasurer, Sent Top Aide To Beginner’s Course
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